Small Talk: VICTOR VILLARREAL

Who are you and what do you do:
Name – Victor Villarreal , Occupation – Singer/Songwriting guitar player that occasionally plays bass and other musical instruments.

Current obsessions:
My current obsessions begin with cantaloupe and end with trying to disassemble Criss Angel’s art of extreme levitation (there has to be a cable involved in there somewhere)

A song or a record that will always put you in a good mood, without fail:
“Limelight” by Rush is probably one of those songs for me. I get a “Rush” every time i listen to the band “Rush”… Ha, OMG – I MUST be the first one to’ve used that clever little pun there.

Tell us about an album or artist you think is really under-appreciated, and why they are deserving of more praise:
Hmm oh man, Well I have to say.. I just saw Craig Wedren (singer/songwriter/score composer/etc…also, aka singer of Shudder To Think) play last weekend at this restaurant/bar place in downtown Chicago. The place was packed with a line out the door, only the people were all waiting for a table and not to see the performance. Pissed me off a little.

Most played track on your iTunes:
Ahh, i’d have to say lately its “Heaven or Las Vegas” by Cocteau Twins and “Sweepstakes prize” by Mirah.

Proudest moment:
Well, one of my proudest moments was maybe when my friend Sam and I received a hand written letter reply from musician Nathan Larson in response to our previous letter (with demo attached) asking him to engineer our LP “precious blood”. We weren’t even sure if he’d take the time to listen to it, much less respond, but he did! I remember we sent him a copy of our 7” “memento mori” and he replied “you have some very interesting work here”. He then followed it up with something about “knobtwiddling” not really being in his line of expertise and how he was more into “producing and arranging music”. Since we weren’t really looking for a “producer” at the time, we never wrote back. But WOW! I felt special (for a day). haha

Most vulnerable moment:
When I lost my i.d. swimming in Martinique (The French West Indies Island). I was on a skin diving excursion there swimming near this shallow beach and It must have fell out of my velcro pocket because when i tried to board back on the cruise, it was gone. I couldn’t believe it! That was the only form of identification I had with me and they were not buying that I was who I said I was. So, they made me wait almost two hours until every last passenger boarded the boat. They were just about to close the door and pull up the platform to depart when the head of security approached and asked me a few trivial questions about the ship (to try to verify that I was actually a passenger). He asked me if I knew what was on deck 9 which was the deck with the “all you can eat ice cream machine” which I was very fond of and had no problem identifying… haha, they then let me back on. Crazy tho, they almost left me there!

If you could score a film for anyone, who would it be any why:
It would be for either Paul Thomas Anderson, or David Lynch — maybe even in reverse order. I’ve had this dynamically sustained love affair with the movie Mulholland dr. ever since it was released and would be very interested in doing a sequel, only it would be called “Dundee rd.” and it would take place in Wheeling IL…sometime during the back half of the nineties.

Your favourite use of a song in a film:
Rebekah del Rio’s cover of Roy Orbison’s song “Crying”. It’s during this very intense emotional scene in Muholland Drive – where two women are in a theater (embracing each other) while watching Rebekah lip sync her own song on a stage. It’s fucking brilliant!

Favourite venue to play in and why:
My favorite venue to perform at would probably have to be the Empty Bottle in Chicago. I feel like it’s the perfect place to see a show. Plus the sound is amazing (both on stage and off), never have a problem hearing my other bandmates while playing.

First band t-shirt you ever purchased from a merch table:
Probably a Gauge t-shirt.

Band you’d leave your bandmates for:
Hmm, wow I don’t know if there’s just one (hahah, jk). There are so many musicians I’d really love to work with, but I really like being in Joan of Arc because I can always count on a spontaneity within the projects we work on. It really challenges me to stretch myself from any kind of traditional creative approach I may be used to taking.

Album you want to expose your kin to whilst in the womb:
My Bloody Valentine “Loveless”, Lungfish “Talking Songs for Walking”.

If for some reason you lost the ability to make and play music, what would fill that gap:
Training dogs for sure! I’m a HUGE dog person that loves working with and interacting with dogs. The more time I spend with them, the more I’m convinced that they secretly have life by the balls.

What was your last dream about:
The last memorable dream I had was a dream that I woke up and couldn’t move or talk. I was paralyzed and couldn’t tell anybody that I was unable to get up. It was VERY shitty..